Calhoun's Contract

We're hearing the espn.com report that Jim Calhoun and UConn are negotiating a new deal that could range in length from four to six years is accurate -- though not necessarily imminent. Expect something to get done over the next month or so.

It probably won't happen before the Huskies begin practice in a little over two weeks. How about before UConn begins playing exhibition games in early November? There's a good chance of that.

Calhoun is in the final year of a current six-year pact that pays him $1.6 million a year and expires on June 30, 2010.

I was told back in early August that something was likely to get done over the ensuing several weeks. But when I talked to Calhoun about a week or so later, he was a bit miffed at the lack of progress that had been made.

Now, it appears progress has been made, and Calhoun should have a new long-term deal once the games start to count.

***Anybody else remember Don Calhoun (no relation, obviously)? Not sure what made me think of him this morning, but I think I used to have this football card.

Knight, Bradley On Campus

Brandon Knight and Michael Bradley are on campus this weekend for official visits. Spoke to both of them today at Gampel while the rest of the team played pick-up games. Here's a little of what each had to say:

***Knight hasn't whittled his list down to five schools yet, but insists that the six or so schools that are at the top of the list (UConn, Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, Miami and UCLA) are all on equal footing right now. His only official visits so far have been to Kentucky (last week) and UConn. Knight isn't sure when or where his next official might come. He's not sure if he'll attend anyone's Late Night Madness festivities, since they all fall on Pine Crest School's Homecoming Weekend.***Knight, the No. 1 recruit in the nation per Rivals.com and the reigning Gatorade National Player of the Year, re-iterated what his Pine Crest coach, Guilford's Dave Beckerman, told me earlier in the week: he'll likely make his commitment in the spring. Knight is a 6-foot-3 point guard, but he's very versatile – averaging 31.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists last season at Pine Crest.

"I can play the two and the one," Knight said. "I don't want to limit myself to say I’m a point guard. I think I'd be a bigger point guard."

***So, the $64,000 question is: Could Knight play together with Kemba Walker next year, assuming Walker doesn't decide to go pro. Knight didn't answer that exact question, but insisted he's not worried about who's still on whatever team he commits to.

"I'm not really concerned about who's going to be there," he said. "I'm more concerned about who I'm going to be playing with, not competing for a spot (with). I don’t really care about players that might be there at my position, because I'm just coming to compete for a spot and get better. I feel if I'm good enough, I'm going to play."

***What does Knight like about UConn, which he's visited twice before on unofficials?

"Great place, great history. I like Coach Calhoun. He gets his point (across). He doesn't tell you what you want to hear. I like that, because my dad's like that a lot. I respect that kind of person that doesn't feed you B.S. I respect that about Coach Calhoun."

***Knight is here with his parents, Efrem and Tonya. They have always stressed academics, and Knight has responded, boasting a 4.2 GPA at challenging Pine Crest.

"I try my best," said Knight, "That's what my parents pride me on first: academics first. If you don't have your academics, you can't get on the court."

***Knight, who suffered a stress fracture in his right foot a short while ago and just got out of a boot cast about a week ago, didn't take part in today's pick-up games. He may do so tomorrow.

So who is Michael Bradley, anyway?Nope, though I always thought this ex-Villanova star would have a better pro career.Nope.Yup, that's him, a 6-10 power forward out of Chatanooga, Tenn. Not as polished or as talkative as Knight, Bradley is, nonetheless, another top-notch student. He's taking some AP courses at Tyner High, and will likely start off his college career with plenty of course credits right off the bat. He'd like to major in pharmacy.

***Bradley is simply looking for "somewhere I'm comfortable." He's made official visits to Georgia and Drake, and has others lined up with Virginia Commonwealth and (possibly) Boston College.

***Bradley envisions himself at the four – a position at which the Huskies could need some depth next season. He played a bit in today's pick-up games but didn't do a whole lot.

In other news …

***Stanley Robinson recently had deviated septum surgery and won't participate in contact drills/pick-up games for another few weeks. He continues to work out and should be fine for the start of practice on Oct. 17.

***I just know there's a bunch of UConn fans out there who are upset that Jim Calhoun wasn't one of the answers in this Sporcle quiz.

Knight In-Home; Bradley to Visit

Here's a piece from today's Register on New Haven's own Dave Beckerman, who coaches the reigning Gatorade National Player of the Year, Brandon Knight, down at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale.

UConn will have an in-home visit with Knight tomorrow, prior to an open gym workout at Pine Crest, where the biggest names in college basketball coaching (Jim Calhoun, John Calipari, Billy Donovan, Bill Self, etc.) are expected to attend. Only problem is, turns out Knight may not be able to showcase all his talents. Knight had suffered a stress fracture in his foot a short while ago, and while he just got out of a cast, he's not quite ready to go at full-throttle yet. Rather than play, he'll likely run a few drills and also (as team captain) instruct his teammates during the open gym. The coaches are still likely to be there.

It also means that Knight isn't likely to play much (if at all) with current UConn players during his official visit to Storrs this upcoming weekend. Recruits usually try to get some run in with their potential future teammates during such visits, but Knight probably won't.

Knight Watchers

Next Wednesday, Sept. 23, at the Pine Crest School's gymnasium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a veritable who's who of college basketball coaches will gather to watch Brandon Knight, the nation's top recruit in the Class of 2010, play in an open gym format.

Pine Crest coach Dave Beckerman, a Guilford resident and former Hamden Hall coach, held a similar open gym last year. Calhoun, Boeheim, Bobby Gonzalez and others were in attendance. But this year's roster is even more impressive.

Knight will make an official visit to Kentucky this weekend, and after next week's open gym, he'll travel to Connecticut, stay at Beckerman's house for a night or two, then make an official visit to UConn. He's already made two unofficials to the school.

Knight has already made an official to Florida, and his others will be Kentucky, UConn, Kansas and Duke. Beckerman doesn't believe that Knight, a 6-3 point guard who averaged 31.8 points per game last season for Pine Crest, will make a commitment this fall. He's likely to wait until the spring.

"There are a lot of variables," Beckerman noted. "He wants to look at who else commits to the schools, how the team does, what's coming back. He wants to see where he fits in."

Suffice to say, Knight should fit in quite well, wherever he chooses. In fact, academically, according to Beckerman, if he went to UConn he'd have 18 credits right off the bat, thanks to all of the AP courses he's taken at Pine Crest (one of the top academic schools in Florida).

Incidentally, Knight will be ESPN on Feb. 15, when Pine Crest takes on Winter Park (which features Doc Rivers' son, another top recruit).

Lamb Lies Down in Storrs

Jeremy Lamb, the 6-foot-4 combo guard out of Norcross, Ga., got to make his commitment to UConn face-to-face with Jim Calhoun late this morning.

Calhoun and UConn assistant Patrick Sellers were at Norcross High to watch Lamb work out, and apparently Lamb figured that while they’re here, he might as well commit to the Huskies’ program. He's UConn's first Class of 2010 commitment.

“UConn made Jeremy a top priority,” said Rolando Lamb, Jeremy’s father. “They consistently went after him, showed him a plan on how he could make a contribution immediately at UConn.”

Lamb is most suited as a shooting guard, but he can play the point guard and (with a 6-11 wingspan) the small forward positions, as well.

“I think the thing that’s made Jeremy very unique and attractive to colleges is the facts that he can play multiple positions,” said Norcross High coach Jesse McMillan. “He jumps well, moves well and is able to create with the ball.”

Lamb checks in at just 160 pounds, so there no doubt he needs to get stronger. But McMillan isn’t worried about that. In fact, Lamb was taking part in a weight-lifting class for basketball players and other Norcross athletes this morning when Calhoun and Sellers came to see him.

“He’s still growing,” said McMillan. “We’ve charted him, and he’s grown about two inches since the beginning of last year. He’s going to put those pounds of muscle on, especially once he gets into a college weight-training program.”

Lamb is a bit of a late-bloomer who really blew up on the summer circuit. He was a sixth man at Norcross last year, playing behind his brother, Zach, as well as Taariq Muhammed and Denzel Jones. Zach Lamb and Muhammed are now at Miami-Dade C.C., while Jones is at Division II Clark-Atlanta.

Jeremy averaged under 14 minutes per game last year, but still scored at a 12.5-ppg clip.

“He scored the ball at a very high rate in limited minutes,” said McMillan. “That was his job, to put the ball in the hole.”

Indeed, Lamb figures to be the type of long-range shooter the Huskies have lacked in recent years.

"Probably one of the better parts of his game is his ability to shoot the mid-range jumper," McMillan added. "He's got an exceptional shooting touch, and he's able to step back and hit the 3-pointer, too."

At a team camp in June, McMillan could tell right away that Lamb was primed for a big run through the summer. Sure enough, he opened a lot of eyes at the Peach Jam Festival in Augusta, Ga. in early July, then again in Orlando in late July.

Lamb made official visits to UConn and Texas, as well as unofficials to Marquette, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Alabama and Auburn. His final three, according to his dad, were UConn, Texas and Georgia.

Though Jeremy was born in Richmond, Va., and has lived in Georgia since he was about four, his dad doesn’t think there will be any culture shock up in the cold Northeast.

“He feels good about it,” said Rolando (himself a very interesting guy). “He loves the coaching staff, they made him feel like family. Jeremy’s a pretty perceptive kid. Being around quality people, that was the most important thing to him.”

McMillan said that Lamb’s academics are in order.

***Who sang "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"? And who was that band's lead singer. (Too easy?)

Those Are People Who Died, Died

Jim Carroll, author of "The Basketball Diaries" and frontman for The Jim Carroll Band, died over the weekend. More so than "The Basketball Diaries," I'll remember Carroll for the punk rock classic "People Who Died" ... though it appears we may have to add a new line: "Jimmy was a rock star and not a hack/Died at 60 of a heart attack ..." or something like that.

What's Up with MJ?

I know Adrian Wojnarowski isn't too popular in UConn territory these days, but he nails it on this one: What was the deal with Michael Jordan at his Hall of Fame speech Friday night? Targeting just about everyone who's ever dealt him even the slightest of slights, perceived or not, MJ came across as bitter and petty. How 'bout celebrating the greatest career in hoops history, Mike, and acknowledging some of the little people who helped you get there.

Wojnarowski hits on most of the examples in this story, but I'll add another: MJ blasting the media for its coverage of him over the years.

No Grand Illlusion for Sticks

Here's an article on Stanley Robinson from today's Register. Speaking with Sticks yesterday, he seems a more mature and confident young man. Always affable and friendly, he's even more so now, to the point where he walked halfway across the court to say hello, shake my hand, tell me about his daughters and ask me about my own 3-year-old daughter.

And UConn fans should feel good about the fact that, during our interview, he kept going back to the fact that he knows he needs to be consistent this season. We all know the otherwordly athleticism he possesses, but he's got to be able to put that together for a full season, rather than just a good stretch of games here and there. Sounds to me like that's his goal this season.

***Looks like UConn's 2009-10 schedule will probably be released tomorrow (Friday), not today.

***Oh, and on a completely unrelated topic: Anyone out there buy any of the newly remastered Beatles CD's? And if you have, and if you've downloaded them on iTunes and your iPod, can you really hear the difference? The most frustrating thing about my iPod is that newer songs are so much louder and crisper-sounding than certain older ones. Just want to know if the remastered Beatles songs sound louder and crisper on an iPod than the old CD's that were released more than 20 years ago. Any input would be appreciated.

(And did anyone catch the reference to the world's worst rock band in the title of this post?).

Pick-Up Lines

Checked out some pick-up games at Gampel today. Everyone was accounted for, as the players had their media guide pictures taken beforehand. Here are some observations:

***Ater Majok, now sporting corn rows, looked real good around the rim with some nifty putbacks, a few nice moves and some alley-oop jams. He could be the wild card for the Huskies this season once he's eligible in mid-December. But then, that's not exactly a news flash.

***Jerome Dyson looked good, knocking down some long-range jumpers. Didn't take it to the hole too much. He hurt his ankle early on and got some medical attention, but continued playing after that and seemed fine (though he did seem to be limping a bit when he was all done).

***Alex Oriakhi is a Man. Capital "M."

***I've been singing the praises all summer in this space of Darius Smith, and I'll continue to do so. He looked good, particularly defensively, made some nifty passes (and a few freshman mistakes). One thing is beyond doubt, however: Smith has got to put on some muscle. If he's more than 160 pounds right now, I'd be shocked.

***Kemba Walker knocked down a few outside jumpers, but missed badly on a few, too. If he can improve his outside shooting this season, that's a big plus.

***The games were pretty intense, particularly for pick-up games in early September. Lots of disputed foul calls, and some hard-nosed defense.

***Smith, Oriakhi and Jamaal Trice are rockin' the Mohawk look. Is it a freshman thing?

***Doug Wiggins played in the games. Looked good, for what that's worth.

***I'm not sold on Charles Okwandu as the starting center yet, but it was just a small sample. And no miracle improvement from Jonathan Mandeldove, either. Gavin Edwards didn't do much today. Again, a small sample.

***The Huskies' 2009-10 schedule will likely be released tomorrow (Thursday). ***Some interesting words from Stanley Robinson, on whether he ever intended on going to the NBA after last season: "I always wanted to come back, because I felt like I owed something to the program that I haven't shown them yet. I'm not in a rush, the NBA's going to be there. But Coach Calhoun, at the banquet (in May), he was saying, 'The scouts keep calling me, it's crazy, (saying) you're a top-15 prospect.' He was like, 'I'm glad I told you now, so you won't put your name in the NBA draft,' because the deadline had passed … But I was going to come back anyway."

Freshman 15 (As in 15 PPG)?

While word out of Storrs at this time of year should always be taken with a grain of salt, the UConn coaching staff is really liking what it sees from some of its incoming players. In fact, it appears the Huskies could get significant contributions from all four freshmen – Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, Alex Oriakhi, Darius Smith and, if he can shoot a little better, Jamaal Trice – this winter.

It's Coombs that could be the pick of the litter. A good – though not great – athlete, he's shooting the ball well and establishing himself as a natural leader.

"He's like a 6-foot-7 ½ A.J. (Price)," said UConn assistant Patrick Sellers. "He can almost run a team. He knows how to play, he talks to everybody."

While Coombs will be listed as a small forward, he can play the two and even the point, and can guard any position on the floor but center. (And there are no academic issues with Coombs, who had to take a couple of courses this summer at the Tilton (N.H.) School before enrolling at UConn).

The staff also is really high on Smith, the tough little Chicago guard – particularly on the defensive end of the floor.

"He's a defensive menace," said Sellers. "Guys can never be comfortable with the ball in their hands when he's around."

Smith needs to put on some weight. He's at 170 right now, and the Huskies would love for him to put on even just five pounds of muscle as weight-lifting sessions get underway. But there's no doubting his athleticism – Smith apparently dunked over 7-foot Charles Okwandu in a scrimmage the other day.

***Rod Odom, the 6-8 Class of 2010 forward out of Middlesex School in Concord, Mass., did not visit UConn on Thursday, as originally intended. Odom will likely visit the school on an upcoming weekend, however, when he can take in a UConn football game and get in some run with some current Huskies players.

About Me

Started as UConn men's basketball beat writer for the New Haven Register in August, 2007. Before that, was traveling Boston Red Sox beat writer from 2004-06 for the Journal Register Co. (which included the Register).